Vocabulary
A trait that helps an organism survive.
Adaptation
This scientist is famous for discovering natural selection, explaining how plants and animals change over time.
Charles Darwin
This type of adaptation involves physical body features.
structural adaptation
The process where animals with helpful traits survive and have more offspring than others.
natural selection
Natural selection is a process where living things with traits that help them ___________ and ___________ are more likely to pass those traits to the next generation.
survive and reproduce
This type of adaptation involves actions.
behavioral adaptation
A change in a population over many generations.
Evolution
Camouflage and mimicry are examples of this type of adaptation.
structural adaptation
This type of adaptation involves internal body processes.
physiological adaptation
__________ selection is guided by environmental pressures, while _____________ selection is guided by human choice.
Natural; artificial
Polar bears have thick fur and fat to survive cold; this shows how adaptations are shaped by the __________.
environment
Opossums pretend to be dead when they feel threatened.
behavioral adaptation
True or False? Natural selection always leads to organisms becoming “perfectly adapted” to their environment.
False – Natural selection favors traits that increase fitness, but environments change and not all traits are perfect; evolution works on what is “good enough” to survive and reproduce.
Evolution happens over time as a result of natural selection acting on these.
adaptations or traits
Humans sweat to cool down and regulate body temperature.
physiological adaptation